The Trade and Development Board,
Recalling that the Bridgetown Covenant called for UNCTAD to formulate and promote policies fostering productive capacities and structural transformation in developing countries, working closely with other United Nations agencies, relevant international organizations and other stakeholders, including by matching needs with relevant support mechanisms and promoting dialogue among countries on their transformational efforts towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (TD/541/Add.2, paragraph 127 (u)),
Emphasizing the need to place productive capacities at the centre of a development planning and policymaking approach towards long-term, holistic and integrated interventions to accelerate inclusive growth and sustainable development,
Recognizing that countries need to prioritize developing new productive capacities, while simultaneously utilizing and maintaining existing ones,
- Welcomes the productive capacities index as a practical tool to guide data-driven and evidence-based policy formulation aimed at fostering economy-wide productive capacities, structural economic transformation and resilience to external shocks;
- Encourages member States that have engaged in the national productive capacities gap assessments and the secretariat to share the good practices and lessons learned in the process, as well as the advances in gearing their macroeconomic, industrial, agricultural and infrastructure policies towards developing economy-wide productive capacities, which is necessary to kick-start the process of structural economic transformation, while effectively addressing unemployment, poverty and the growing socioeconomic vulnerabilities;
- Stresses that national policies and strategies and development partnerships and international support mechanisms are necessary for developing countries to build productive capacities, ensure diversification and structural economic transformation;
- Calls upon UNCTAD, with the support of development partners, to continue supporting developing countries by building on ongoing operational activities such as the national productive capacities gap assessments and the carefully sequenced holistic programmes of productive capacities development, as well as to continue its collaboration and dissemination in the United Nations development system.
